Industry rumours suggest Melbourne, Australia-based SaaS construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex may be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in November, with road shows underway this month (according to The Australian). Talk of a possible IPO first emerged in mid-July (post).
Australian publications are suggesting investment banks Macquarie and UBS will take the company to the analyst road show in late September and the management road show in mid to late October. The book build is slated for late October, but the size of the offer has yet to be disclosed.
The company apparently received favourable feedback from a non-deal road show in July, especially with Asian investors who liked the story of taking Australian expertise global. Aconex has expanded aggresively overseas, with a strong push in north America in recent years.
Update (7 October 2014) – Australian newspapers have been speculating that the IPO will value Aconex in the range of AU$400m-AU$700m, with founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot retaining a minimum 15% stake (see also this Smart Company article).
2 comments
1 ping
Hi Paul,
Can you please give us your views about the valuation proposed for Aconex? For a firm – if i recollect correctly – has last years losses @ abt AUD 4.5 Million Approximately. Do you have any idea about the cash flow from operations?
Under the above:
1. I am genuinely interested in the expected methodology for valuation adopted to get a figure of about AUD 400 – 700M Range. Infact – i would welcome such a valuation – higher the better. Are there other firms as well who in recent past received the same/similar factor of P/E during IPO’s or talkover in recent past as per you?
2. With abt 50% of the total stock of the firm expected to be offered during the IPO including the founders offering about 10% out of 25% total stock held by them of the total firm during the IPO – is it normal?
Does the founders in other firms in your experience part away with such a major stake during the IPO? Does it signal something? what are you views of the same?
I really feel happy for the QA Software – who will be able to liquidate the stake held by them in the company. Congrats Russel!!
Regards
Ritesh
Author
Hi Ritesh
It took me a while, but I did eventually get round to answering some of your points in a follow-up post here.
Regards
Paul
[…] Aconex will float as a public company on the Australian Securities Exchange in late November (see previous post) with a market capitalisation of between Au$351 million and Au$406.5m […]